. >> they debate the status of reaching a deal on the fiscal cliff. senator mcconnell mountains a phone call received from president obama while he was in hawaii. this is 15 minutes. >> you will excuse me if i am frustrated in the situation i find myself in. president obama, self and others and asked if there was something we could do to avoid in the fiscal clef. we have been asking the president and the democrats to work with us on a bipartisan agreement for months. a plan that would simplify the tax code, st. the deficit, protect the tax payers, and put the economy. democrats consistently rejecting the offer is. the president chose instead to spend time on the campaign trail. this was after he got reelected. a congressional democrats said on their hands. we have stepped away out of our comfort zone. we wanted an agreement. we had no takers. the phone never rang it. here we are five days after the new year and we might finally start talking. democrats have had a year to put forward a balanced bipartisan proposal. if they had something that fixed the